Oberlin College

I went to Oberlin in the 80's when the baseball team was full of good dudes who really just couldn't compete. I went back for my 25th reunion and took my son who was 12 at the time to meet Coach Adrian Abrahamowicz and see my alma matter. Coach treated son like he was on an official visit and as a former Oberlin athlete (Hockey/Rugby) I was amazed at facilities improvements since I graduate in 1985. 

Coach Abrahamowicz took over the head position from Eric Lahetta who really was the first to make big strides improving the credibility of the baseball program and it's facilities. Lahetta ascended to Asst AD and Adrian took over the team which made the DIII regionals last year, losing only to one of the best teams in the tourney (SUNY something).

Abrahamowicz has over seen the compete reconstruction of the baseball complex and full turfing of the field as well as addition of a press box. He gets "recruits" from all over the country, and has established a tradition of his best players returning as assistant coaches. Most recently, Phil Brua returned as pitching coach after a few years in the Jays system.

School is for bright kids (there's no explaining why they admitted me) and academics are top notch. Tendency toward producing future PhDs and professors; not engineers and doctors. Campus politics range from moderate to very liberal, to the unexplainably off-beat. The latter has gotten Oberlin some bad press relative to politics around antipathy toward Israel (if that matters to you). I view it as typical acting out by kids who mean well, but have no "time in the world" yet to see how stupid they're being. But Oberlin is a safe place for this kind of acting out, and it does not imbue the whole campus at all.

Summary: I adore Coach A and if my son had been interested in DIII, I would have made sure he considered Oberlin, which he really liked after our visit.

I'm not sure I would spend the money to send my kids to a college where the administration and professors had a Constitution shredding and bonfire night.

RJM posted:

I'm not sure I would spend the money to send my kids to a college where the administration and professors had a Constitution shredding and bonfire night.

Given the circumstances of the shredding (couldn't find any information about a bonfire), I wouldn't have any problem with sending my kids to Oberlin, Yale, Cornell or Syracuse.

FWIW--The present activism-based issues on campus are similar to those being played out on campuses across the country. The socially awkward problems of campuses being safe spaces for speech AND for being free from speech that bothers the few. I know some scoff at this "problem" and apply the label "political correctness" as a damning (but blunderously un-nuanced) criticism of the academic sphere. But it's a real tension and there's no easy way to deal with it.

The other issue stems from the apparent over-the-top politics imbued in the BDS, a National student group that sympathizes with Palestine and has terribl-ized Israel. Its politics are, again, blunderously ham-handed, and have lead to some highly publicized anti-semitism and scattered, ironic intolerance for Jewish students. Again, this is being played out on campuses nationwide. Some places it just gets diluted in the larger spaces of campus life. On a smaller campus (3000 students) it gets larger play and reflects more poorly on the school.

Candidly, I know well that some parents would just as soon send their kids off to get a generic business degree from BigAss State University, then go get a career ladder job in faceless corporate America. For those parents, Oberlin and schools like it would never appeal anyways. But for parents that want to raise worldly, conscious, critical thinkers, with an authentic critical skillset and relevant intellectual tools, this is an apt environment for learning, whether or not you like the politics.

I loved Oberlin despite feeling in the political minority when I was there. So do the kids that go there to play baseball these days as the program is growing and getting better in every way.

Tres_Arboles, great post, and I agree 100% on your comments in your second-to-last paragraph.  Our son attended a LAC very similar in academic and social profile to Oberlin, but with only 1,400 students.  He left for school Frosh year somewhat tunnel-visioned, with a rather insulated world-view (or lack thereof) and emerged transformed as you describe four years later (and immediately independent, with a job to-boot)

My niece went to Oberlin on a swimming scholarship. She loved the school, athletics and unfortunately the ultra liberal political scene. Not sure she has had a paying job since she graduated 2 years ago. She can grow some bad a$$ organic veggies though! Haha.

Former teammate of my son is a current baseball player at Oberlin. While liberal before, he is now an activist for anything anti corporate, fossil fuel & pro ocupy anything. I'm cool with that if the university allows for all sides, but don't think that's the case here. He loves the baseball and probably would not had the opportunity to play had he not chosen a high academic DIII across the country.

None the less, love them both and eventually things work out long term. I'm sure that both are feelin the Bern! Haha!

Like and Picked. Thanks for the responses. I am glad many can have insight and a sense of humor about these things. I really love HS Baseball Web.  

Picked Off posted:

My niece went to Oberlin on a swimming scholarship. She loved the school, athletics and unfortunately the ultra liberal political scene. Not sure she has had a paying job since she graduated 2 years ago. She can grow some bad a$$ organic veggies though! Haha.

Former teammate of my son is a current baseball player at Oberlin. While liberal before, he is now an activist for anything anti corporate, fossil fuel & pro ocupy anything. I'm cool with that if the university allows for all sides, but don't think that's the case here. He loves the baseball and probably would not had the opportunity to play had he not chosen a high academic DIII across the country.

None the less, love them both and eventually things work out long term. I'm sure that both are feelin the Bern! Haha!

PO'd,

I know you understand this but this is for others who may read and misunderstand. Your niece could have not gone onto Oberlin with a swimming scholarship. Oberlin being D3 does not grant athletic scholarships. All her scholarships would have been of the academic. The myth of Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge scholarships is just that, a myth. I am not saying that it does not happen, but it happens far less than people expect. 

Last year, Oberlin got hot at the right time. I know a good friend of coach A, who's son plays for OWU. He said that coach A was surprised but very happy they finally were playing to their potential. A long time poster 7Steps went to Oberlin to play baseball. The team did not get the support from the student body that he expected. Sports on Oberlin campus are after thoughts for the non athletes. Many students do not see the point. But the student athletes who play for this school do. I talked to a few of them at the NCAC tourney last year. (I wish OWU would have gotten a shot at them.) They seemed pretty close nit group.

Dill field is a nice facility from what I have heard. Oberlin has also upgraded other facilities and has put some more emphasis on athletics. Back in the bad old days the football team was wildly under sized, there were concerns that if there were many injuries they would not have enough players to safely finish out the season. But they always did. The football team has beaten one of the power houses in the conference,  Wabash. Their roster is larger now. While this program is getting better I would not consider it an up and comer. They have to compete with Wooster every year. Also the top 4 get into the NCAC tournament. The NCAC is split into divisions east and west. It used to be the top two from each division got into the tourney, and the winner of the tourney received the pool A bid. In those days it was mostly Allegheny and Wooster from the east and OWU and whoever from the west. Now who gets into the tourney is decided through cross over games. on the last weekend of the season the top 4 from the east and the west play 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3, format. they play a 3 game series and the 4 winners of those series advance to the tournament. This has opened opportunities for other teams that regularly did not have a chance before, especially the 2 vs. 3. 

I would like to see two changes, in the NCAC. One would be to go to round robin. All teams play each other, instead of east and west. Tough to do when the eastern and western most schools are in Pennsylvania and Middle Indiana. It is tough to make up games. I would also like it if Conference play was not two DH's Saturday and Sunday, 7-9 inning games. I would prefer 2 9's or do a three game series a 9 on Friday and dh on Saturday. There is less chance of a tie and then Sundays you can play out of conference. Gives more chances to beef up the schedule. But several of the NCAC teams play all there out of conference games during their spring break and then only play on the weekends after getting back to school. Kenyon has a two week spring break. Kenyon and Oberlin both play very few if any non-conference games when they get back. This makes it hard to keep more than 4 starting pitchers sharp. 

 Any of the NCAC schools are fine places to play. In the past there were definitely regular bottom feeders, but the conference is becoming more balanced. Wooster is still on top, and usually has the best bet for a pool C, bid in most years, but some of the traditional bottom teams will rise up and have a chance. 

Oberlin has released there Roster.

http://www.goyeo.com/roster.aspx?path=baseball&

pretty well balanced between the classes:

SR - 12

JR - 10

SO - 9

FR - 13

Did not dig into returning starters etc....